French Tonic
Wine

If cocaine is consumed on its own, it yields two principal metabolites, ecgonine
methyl ester and benzoyleconine. Neither compound has any
discernible psychoactive effect. Cocaine co-administered with alcohol, however,
yields a potent psychoactive metabolite, cocaethylene.

Cocaethylene is very rewarding
agent in its own right. Cocaethylene is formed in the liver by the replacement
of the methyl ester of cocaine by the ethyl ester. It blocks the dopamine transporter
and induces euphoria. Hence coca wine drinkers are effectively consuming three
reinforcing drugs rather than one.